Page 26 of Pucking Possessive (Kings of Castlebrook #2)

LILAC

I ’m glad I’m upstairs.

Whatever conversation the guys are having downstairs with Elijah Moretti feels tense.

Callum didn’t tell me he was a triplet, or that all three of them were coming here today.

They were dressed the same in grey slacks, white button-down shirts with the sleeves elegantly rolled up to their elbows.

They exude old money mafia vibes, and I knew I wasn’t the only one that had bad vibes because Madi almost instantly pulled me and Winter upstairs under the guise of needing help with her makeup.

Madison Caldwell may need a lot of things in this life, but help with doing her makeup isn’t one of them.

Now we’re in Madison and Hayden’s bedroom, where the vibes are pink, plush, and a stack of Hayden’s clothes piled up in a chair. Madi’s vanity is the centerpiece, light pink with silver hardware and a mirror rimmed with soft lights.

"This is so cute," I say, running my hand over the glossy surface, eyes catching on the little dishes full of rings and the blush-pink brushes arranged in size order.

Winter laughs and points at Madi. "Hayden found it on her Pinterest before they were dating.”

Madi flushes, swiping mascara onto her lashes. "He sure knows how to make a spectacle, doesn’t he?"

I grin, because an idea pops into my head. "Have you ever pinned something totally ridiculous just to see what he’d do?"

Winter collapses backward on the bed, her braid fanning out over one of Madi's light pillows. "Oh my god, this is my new favorite game. What can we pin?"

Madi groans, but she’s smiling. "You guys are going to get me in trouble."

I pick up her light pink phone. The case has tiny white daisies on the case, of course, and tap her Pinterest app open. "What should we add?"

Winter lifts a hand dramatically, eyes closed in the most Tristan-esque move I’ve ever seen. "Nothing that will make him jealous. We can’t handle him going on a murder spree because you pinned a shirtless guy."

I laugh, scrolling through boards. "He really would, too."

Madi shrugs, trying to play it cool. "I plead the fifth."

I glance over my shoulder at Winter. "St. Charles hockey merch?"

Winter bolts upright. "YES."

Madi sighs, already defeated. "You guys are evil. I’m going to have to stop him from waiting in the parking lot at their next away game."

We all laugh, because she’s not wrong. Hayden Lockwood wouldn’t pass a single question on a psychopathology test, but when it comes to Madison, he’s all in.

Obsessively, protectively, maybe-a-little-terrifyingly in.

But it’s kind of hard to argue with the way he treats her. Like she hung the stars just for him.

"All done. Does it look okay?" Madi asks, spinning in her chair.

She’s clearly satisfied with her hair and makeup. Her high ponytail tied with a soft pink bow, delicate jewelry sparkling against her skin.

"Beautiful," I say. "I can never get my hair in a ponytail that high."

"Have a seat. I’ll show you my trick," she offers, holding up a cropped pink sweater against herself like she’s debating wearing it over the white tank she has on.

I glance at Winter, who’s lounging at the edge of the bed with a fashion magazine. "Did you want to go next?"

She shakes her head without looking up. "Nope. You’re good. Tristan braids my hair every morning. And I love seeing the makeup looks you guys do, but every time I try it, my skin itches. I think I’m allergic or something."

"There’s a girl in my psych class who’s allergic to something common in makeup," I say, taking a seat at the vanity. "You might have something similar. Or maybe just really sensitive skin."

Madi pulls on the pink sweater and steps behind me. "High ponytail like mine?"

"Yes, please!"

She smiles and starts sectioning my hair.

I hesitate, then glance at Winter. She’s so sweet, so easy to talk to. "Tristan doesn’t strike me as the braiding type."

Winter sits up, folding her legs. "It’s kind of complicated. He used to do it for me when I was hurt and couldn’t. It just sort of became our thing."

I smile. "That’s honestly so sweet and..."

Madi cuts in with a smirk. "Unlike Tristan?"

We all laugh.

Winter tilts her head toward me. "Speaking of sweet, Callum sure seems to be in love."

I bite my lip. "He’s just trying to help me out of a bad situation. That’s who Callum is. He puts on a big front, but he’s very caring."

Madi gathers the top half of my hair and secures it, then does the same with the bottom half to make it look like one ponytail. It feels weightless.

Winter gets up and fiddles through Madi’s lip glosses, picking a light pink one and leaning toward the mirror to apply it. "This has been fun, but we can’t actually go anywhere. We have three guard dogs downstairs and none of them are on chains."

I laugh, because she’s not wrong. The boys really do act like guard dogs.

Madi shrugs, already walking toward the door. "I bet if we get in a car, they’ll be waiting. We can figure it out then."

"Girls’ night?" she asks hopefully.

"Girls’ night," Winter and I echo.

We giggle our way out of the room, shutting the door behind us as we move down the stairs. The big staircase creaks beneath our footsteps as we tiptoe past the living room where we see that there are no boys in sight.

Odd.

But we shrug it off, sliding through the kitchen and into the garage. It’s Winter who presses the button to open the garage door only to find Hayden, Callum, and Tristan standing in the driveway.

Scowling.

"Where do you think you're going?" Callum asks, arms crossed.

I decide to be a brat. Just for fun. "Where are you three going? You're the ones standing in the driveway."

Tristan’s face is unreadable. "We’re waiting for the three of you, of course."

Madi squints. "How do you even know when we’re leaving? I know you don’t have cameras in our bedroom, because Hayden would kill you both for watching me change."

Hayden deadpans, "You’d be correct on that."

Callum smirks. "That’s really for us to know and for you to wonder about. Where are you going?"

Winter crosses her arms. "Girls’ night. That’s as far as we got, because we knew you'd stop us."

Hayden scowls for a moment and then says, “I have a negotiation.”

Madi walks over to him, almost like she can tell he’s about to lose it if we don’t say we’re going to go back inside and never go in public again. He wraps his arms around her and drops a kiss on the top of her head.

“Let’s hear it,” Winter says, and she’s not smiling, but I’ve gotten to know her long enough to know she’s amused by all of this.

"Girls' night plus Hayden," Hayden says, referring to himself in the third person.

This solidifies my theory that he's a psychopath.

Madi shifts in his arms, reaching up to brush his messy hair out of his eyes.

He leans back against the side of his SUV as if that simple gesture from her is enough to relax him.

Callum opens his mouth to chime in, but it's Winter who cuts him off, "Fine. Girls' night, plus the three of you. But absolutely no karaoke. I'm not dealing with Tristan trying to beat Callum to death with a microphone again."

"Again?" I blurt out, but Callum is grabbing my hand like all of this between us is real.

His thumb brushes gently across the top of my fingers while he's calling out song titles to taunt the broodiest goalie who ever lived.

I realize somewhere between 'She Thinks my Tractor's Sexy' and 'Chattahoochee' that I wish it wasn't just pretend. I want all of this to be real.

I squeeze Callum's hand and nod my head toward Tristan who looks like he's going to pick up his bike and throw it at Callum's head. "I need you to be alive if this whole fake wedding thing is going to work out."

"It's good for him. Gives him a reason to let Winter calm him down." It feels like my whole body moves when Callum shrugs his big shoulders, indicating that he's just doing his good deed for the day.

I glance back over and watch as Tristan leans down, so he's eye to eye with Winter.

She's the smallest of us girls and has to be more than a foot shorter than him.

She's touching his face gently, speaking quietly, and he's just nodding every few words while his eyes never leave her face.

Suddenly, Tristan dips his head, and I watch as she puts his helmet on for him and then fastens the chin strap as if she's done it a million times.

Tristan stretches to full height and tucks Winter's long braid inside her hoodie before he returns the favor.

For as cold as he is to the rest of the world, he couldn't be more gentle with her if he tried.

"You can call me cupid if you want," Callum leans down and whispers against the side of my face, sending chills all over my skin.

He grins at me, and I realize now that there is so much more going on beneath the rowdy exterior he presents to the world.

I've known him most of my life, but I feel like for the first time he's really allowing me to see what's underneath.